Malva Pudding

Mandi:  The wonderful thing about Malva tart is that you can eat it after a hearty family meal as pudding or as a sweet for afternoon visitors.  I always enjoyed this recipe no matter when it was made and if my memory serves me correctly, it was usually a Sunday Afternoon treat when we had visitors served with coffee or tea.  This is the very first time that I have ever made the dish myself.  Why, I cannot tell because it’s a very easy recipe and there is really nothing to it.  I was concerned that there was not enough sauce for the cake but this afternoon when I served it to my mom and dad, my dad recalled that my mom always made extra sauce to give it that soaked texture which is the signature of the traditional Malva Tart.  I had some ideal milk left from the sauce that I made and poured it into the bottom of the pudding bowls so that it could soak up some more moisture.  Next time I will definitely make more sauce.

 

 Malva pudding

50g Margarine

1 Extra large egg

5ml vinegar

3ml salt

150ml milk

125ml sugar (100g)

15ml Apricot Jam

250 ml cake flour (140g)

5ml Bicarbonate of Soda

Sauce:

170g can of evaporated milk

100ml sugar (75g)

5ml vanilla

Cream margarine and sugar.  Add the egg, beating until light and fluffy.  Mix in the jam and vinegar.  Sift the dry ingredients and add, with milk beating until smooth.  Spoon into a greased medium oven proof dish and bake in a preheated oven at 180 ◦C for 30 – 40 minutes.

 For Sauce:  Heat the evaporated milk and sugar till sugar melts.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Pour sauce over the top as soon as pudding is taken out of the oven.

 Serves 4 – 6 (if you cut smaller portions, you will get up to 10 pieces)

Deidre:  The smell of Malva pudding takes me straight back to big family lunches after the church service on Sundays.  Everyone would be there – aunts, uncles, Ouma and Oupa.  I can still see Oupa welcoming us as Ouma was busy in the kitchen putting the final touches to the dishes she had prepared – and the sweet gooey smell of Malva pudding.  We would walk through to the kitchen and Ouma would greet us, the warmth of her smile reaching her eyes as she gave us each a hug.

As with the bobotie, Malva pudding is a very traditional South African pudding.  I hope that I pimped it without it losing its special identity.

Malva pudding

50g butter (one can never have too much butter)

1 Extra large egg

5ml vinegar

3ml salt

150ml milk

125ml sugar (100g)

Apricot Jam

250 ml cake flour (140g)

5ml Bicarbonate of Soda

½ tsp cinnamon

Sauce:

250 ml evaporated milk

140g sugar

5ml vanilla

Pre-heat your oven to 180°C.

Prepare a muffin tin by spraying with spray and cook.

Place spoonfuls of apricot jam on a sprayed baking tray and place in the freezer for1 hour.

Cream the butter and sugar. 

Add the egg, beating until light and fluffy. 

Add the vinegar and mix thoroughly. 

Sift the dry ingredients and add, alternating with milk.  Beat until smooth. 

Place one spoonful of mixture into each greased muffin hole.

Place one of the frozen spoonfuls of apricot jam in the centre of each muffin.

Fill until ¾ full.

My mixture made 8 malva muffins.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

 For Sauce:  Mandi warned me that the original sauce recipe was not enough for the dish, so I doubled the quantities.

Heat the evaporated milk and sugar till sugar melts.  Remove from heat and add vanilla.  Pour spoonfuls of sauce over the top of the muffins as soon as they are removed from the oven.

Pour the rest into a jug for serving.

This is a very quick and easy way of baking a malva pudding, and as they are individual portions there’s not squabbling about sizes J.

Challenges and tips:

1. No real challenges apart from cleaning up the gooey sauce from cabinets etc. when I poured spoonfuls of the sauce over the muffins – rather do this over the sink;

2. Tips- I added ½ teaspoon of cinnamon to the batter – gives it a delicious spicy flavour;

3. I didn’t mix my apricot jam in with the dough as I wanted the apricot jam to form a layer in the middle of the malva pudding, instead it made a tangy layer at the bottom of the muffin – still very nice though!